As
a child I used to go exploring in the mountains
with my friends. So that my mother did not realise
how far we were roaming, we did not take any bread
with us, but made do with wild plants for our
provisions, such as silifa shoots and salsify
roots, which not only satisfied our hunger but
kept us healthy. On one of these expeditions a
strange shape in a rock caught my eye. It looked
like a sea shell, but was made of stone. For hours
we stayed there trying to work out what it could
be. As a fervent reader of Jules Verne, I tried
to take a scientific approach to our discovery.
Perhaps this rock had at one time been in the
sea? But then how did it find its way up here
into the mountains? My friends made fun of me,
saying that God had petrified people who rebelled
against him, and must have done the same to this
animal. Ignoring this theory, I went to the public
library and discovered that what we had found
was a fossil. However, this did not help to explain
what a sea shell had been doing on a mountain.
When later I became a geologist, I was approached
on countless occasions ...

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during field studies by people with tree fossils,
asking me to explain how a tree had turned to
stone. Every time I patiently explain until the
person understands.
The first living creatures to appear on earth,
whose estimated age is approximately 4.6 billion
years, were single cell organisms. Later primitive
multi-cell organisms began to evolve, and when
at the beginning of the Palaeozoic Era, 570 million
years ago, the oxygen level of the atmosphere
began to increase, life on earth began to multiply
at an unprecedented pace. From that time up to
the present, new living creatures have evolved
and others become extinct for diverse reasons.
The first fish began to appear 438 million years
ago, and 360 million years ago the first land
animals evolved. The dinosaurs which appeared
during the Triassic Period 245 million years ago
ruled the earth for no less than 180 million years.
Mammals only appeared 23 million years ago, and
the most destructive of them all, man, evolved
during the Pleistocene Period.

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Now
let us return to fossils. When the bodies of animals
are buried under sediment of some kind, in time
they become fossilised. The reason why the great
majority of fossils belong to marine creatures
is because the sea often provides perfect conditions
for fossilisation. The hard parts of dead creatures
sink to the sea bed, where they are buried in
sediment, which over millions of years is transformed
into rock. Over a long period of time tectonic
movement in the eath'se crust lifts this rock
up to the surface. That is why marine fossils
are to be found in high mountains such as the
Toros and Himalayas.

The first living creatures to appear on earth,
whose estimated age is approximately 4.6 billion
years, were single cell organisms. Later primitive
multi-cell organisms began to evolve, and when
at the beginning of the Palaeozoic Era, 570 million
years ago, the oxygen level of the atmosphere
began to increase, life on earth began to multiply
at an unprecedented pace.

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INANIMATE
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/APRIL

From
that time up to the present, new living creatures
have evolved and others become extinct for diverse
reasons. The first fish began to appear 438 million
years ago, and 360 million years ago the first
land animals evolved. The dinosaurs which appeared
during the Triassic Period 245 million years ago
ruled the earth for no less than 180 million years.
Mammals only appeared 23 million years ago, and
the most destructive of them all, man, evolved
during the Pleistocene Period.
Not all fossils can be seen clearly with the naked
eye. Tiny plankton, if not eaten by other creatures,
sank to the sea bed when they died and eventually
become part of the rock. These enable geologists
to calculate the age of sedimentary rock. A sample
cut from such rock in a laboratory is glued to
a piece of glass and then cut down further to
a fine slither 0.03 mm thick. This is then examined
under a microscope. Foraminifera are the most
common of such micro-fossils, their average size
being comparable to a pin head.

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Each
of these minute animals belongs to a particular
era, which is why they are invaluable for dating
rock.
Fossils are the lifeless witnesses of their
time. Thanks to them we can find out about the
climate, biological diversity, and tectonic
movements at the period when the rock was formed.
In particular, their contribution to oil exploration
is enormous.
So when you come across a fossilised sea shell,
you are touching a creature that lived at least
several million years ago. You realise that
human beings are mere newcomers to this world
of ours in terms of geological time, yet no
other creature has caused such damage to the
blue planet which is our home. Although natural
causes have brought about the extinction of
so many species, human beings must be the only
one capable of exterminating themselves. Remembering
this, we may make a greater effort to protect
our world.